Local premieres for two operas, one wryly whimsical, the other grimly hard-hitting.

More sober fare came from Opera Parallèle, the community’s leading purveyor of contemporary music theatre. Last weekend’s North American premiere of Adam Gorb’s Anya 17, at the Marines’ Memorial Theater in San Francisco, billed itself as the first opera to deal with human trafficking (though a case might be made for Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri centuries ago). Sincerity counts for much in Ben Kaye’s libretto drawn from the headlines and in the British composer’s eclectic, tart score, which adroitly mingles mild dissonance with jazzy riffs and sour Weillesque lyricism.

In recounting the sad saga of Anya and the other women kidnapped and brought to a brothel in western Europe, Gorb, in one disturbing scene after another, dwells on the brutality inflicted upon these unfortunates at the hands of a pimp with all the compassion of an iceberg. The irony is thick in the air: compassion for Anya comes only from an old customer. It’s all pure melodrama…

Anya 17 was directed starkly by Brian Staufenbiel amid a blizzard of projections. Nicole Paiement conducted her 14-member onstage orchestra with brave commitment. Soprano Anna Noggle’s Anya led a cast imbued with a sense of grim purpose. Show Boat this was not.

“No champagne this evening, no Premierengeschnatter (Premiere Chatter). Only concern. And silence. Then applause, roaring loudly after seventy minutes of silence…”

No champagne this evening, no Premierengeschnatter. Only concern. And silence. Then applause, roaring loudly after seventy minutes of silence. No known opera evening in Meiningen Kammerspielen, for many reasons. The subject is not a unusual in musical theater: the prostitute, the prostitute. But it is not those romanticized as the Alban Berg’s Lulu or Violetta in Verdi’s “La Traviata”. Instead, it’s about young flesh, fresh from Eastern Europe, numbered. Thus, no suitor has to bother with pesky name when he ordered the goods woman.

Forced prostitution. To raise this issue on a stage as well, as it creates through the means of music that pretends less images rather in the minds of the audience that has to Adam Gorb not a composer still married. “Anya 17″ has the Briton called his chamber opera, translation superfluous, as superfluous as the concrete location of the plot. Anya’s story could play anywhere between Eastern and Western Europe: A poor girl who loves for the first time. Want to believe the nice thing about this life in the West, which promises you the beloved. And then without it ending up in a dump. For money to buy, day and night.

Tell that everything is from the perspective of women to men has librettist Ben Kaye the marginal roles intended for, ugly roles: love vorgaukelnde decoy Uri that sex with love be confused Free Gabriel (both parts sung by Rodrigo Porras Garulo) and the brutal pimp Viktor . Stephanos Tsirakoglou shows him as a patronizing dealer who supplies the market only what this requires. And for that the hand is staying.

The market wants girls like Anya, whose dismay flashes her fate from each shooed views from every gesture, from each desperate tone of Anne Ellersiek. He also wants girls like Natalia (Carolina Krogius), happy girls, raped by father, clarified by strangers at age ten, twelve working the streets. He wants girls like the blind Elena (Camila Ribero-Souza), bruised resigned to their existence. But he does not want a girl like Mila (Elif Aytekin) whose body apparently suffers from this market than for a Free favor could find him. The reason has to die is disposed of.

Director Mareike Zimmermann leaves the four women occur in nude Suites, like bathing suits with sewn breasts and buttocks. The alienated, makes the scenes appear grotesque. The sex is just as ugly as those men who thus make a deal in this oppressive intensive production. The viewer comes when looking at the stage like a voyeur before looking to a container with mirror foil, the times reflected, sometimes gives a view of the scene free.

What happens twice in the music Gorb that makes kicks and punches audible. According opulent with two musicians on percussion is the fifteen-member Court Orchestra under the direction of the first Kapellmeister Leo McFall occupied. It leads – enriched with quotes – sound in two opposite spheres. After kicking off with folklore bonds it changes with the flight to the West. Commented it the glittering world of the goods ironically with Broadway and jazz. In the score, there are so cliché, as well as on stage plenty of cliche-affected can be seen, the touched yet or perhaps because. At the end of a little hope for Anya.

More still affected after all the pain, blood, fear. No known opera evening.

Further performances on 8./14. December 10 January 8 February every 20 clock

In about a week, I will be heading down to Meiningen Germany to Das Meininger Theater to attend the fully-staged world premiere of Anya17 (and many subsequent performances over the coming months).

When you are in the midst of a long-term project, it can be all too easy to look forward with trepidation and be forced to accept the sudden realisation that you have “so far to go…”

Today (for a change) I decided to take the opposite view and “stopped on the mountainside” to look back and see just how far we had actually come.

From the genus of an idea, the amazing Anya17 team has:

1. Premiered concert performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10/10 and The Royal Northern College of Music.

2. Gained extensive coverage to raise awareness of Human Trafficking on the brilliant BBC and with many many others (as far afield as South Korea and Australia).

3. Premiered Anya17 in Romania and received an invitation to take the opera all over Romania by The Ministry of Internal Affairs (in conjunction with The UK-Romania Friendship Foundation and their wonderfully-successful International Human Trafficking Symposium).

4. Secured a USA premiere with Opera Parallele in San Francisco in 2014, and used the opportunity to engage a swathe of Human Rights groups and Media in America.

5. Won the “Best Film or Stage Production Dealing with Human Trafficking” Award at the Anti-Slavery Day Media Awards last year at The House of Commons, promoted by The Human Trafficking Foundation.

6. Gained the official endorsement of thirteen Anti-Trafficking NGOs, many of whom we hope will attend the German premiere.

7. A performance in Feb next year in Wales is currently awaiting confirmation, whilst other potential performances in the UK with the original Cast are at such an early stage that… let’s just wait and see…

Yes, we do have a long way to go.

Sometimes though it’s good to look back and gain confidence and inspiration for the future, from the successes of the past.

I haven’t met any of the Singers or Musicians who will be performing Anya17 in Germany. I haven’t even yet met the Director, the Conductor, the Costume Designer or any of the others.

I did though receive an email from one of the Singers, who is playing the part of “Elena” in Germany. I won’t relate the email because all these thoughts will be appearing on the blog soon.

Performing Anya 17 in a country where more women and children are trafficked for sex slavery than any other Eastern European country was extremely poignant.

For me, it brought an even deeper level of emotional engagement and the back story of my character became even more detailed. Seeing all the delegates from the Anti Human Trafficking conference and members of numerous trafficking charities in the audience also made the story become deeper. Everyone in that Philharmonic Hall was fighting against the same thing – human trafficking and slavery. This made the whole experience very powerful and the opera more relevant than ever before.

I always cry at the end of my aria in Anya 17 and also at the end of the opera, and this time, I cried even more. When the audience gave a standing ovation and the whole cast, crew and orchestra were taking bows on stage, the applause was saying more than just “what a great performance” but also “let us all continue the fight”. What more thrill could you want as a performer than being involved in something that is an art AND a campaign for change?

Of course, teaming up with a Romanian conductor, orchestra and half a Romanian cast also made the experience more interesting. Their rehearsal techniques and structure is different. And their way of approaching and learning contemporary music is also very different. They were all extremely friendly and really welcomed us to their country and culture.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience for all involved and we really hope we can continue to perform it all over the UK and the world.

With just three days to go now before the Romanian premiere of Anya17 in Timisoara on the eve of Anti-Slavery Day, I am delighted to hear that rehearsals are going very well and that the Director (Caroline Clegg), the Cast and Musicians are all in good spirits.

Whilst I would very much like to be with the Composer Adam Gorb and with you all in Romania, there is much here left to be done, evidenced by this new Guardian report on Human Trafficking going on under our very noses in the UK today.

It is with great pleasure that I can officially announce here that Anya17 has won the award for ‘Best stage or film production dealing with human trafficking’ at the Human Trafficking Foundation Media Awards 2012 which were recently held at the Speaker’s House in London on 17th October, on the eve of Anti-Slavery Day.

I feel very unworthy of announcing this fantastic news here on our blog, but as the Composer Adam Gorb, Librettist Ben Kaye and Director Caroline Clegg more than deserve a break after all their hard work and the excitement of the awards, I am posting up some photos from the night and look forward to more news from Ben soon.

Ben wrote on Facebook very late on the night of the awards “If I look shell-shocked then that’s because I was – I had absolutely no idea that we might possibly win” and he left a phone message for Stu and I (Stu designed the Anya17 logo and I created the website) on the awards night with a long pause on the answerphone, finally saying in his usual modest tone and sounding very shocked indeed “We’ve only gone and won the bloomin thing!”.

I personally had no doubt whatsoever of course that Anya17 would win, and am absolutely thrilled for Ben, Adam, Caroline and the fantastic cast for their talent and dedication, but of course more importantly we hope it will raise even more awareness about sex trafficking, and open up more opportunities for further Anya17 performances in the UK and worldwide…

I couldn’t be more delighted to let you know that Anya17 has been shortlisted for the 2012 Anti Slavery Day Awards to be held at The Houses of Parliament on October 17th 2012.

The Awards, created by The Human Trafficking Foundation and backed by Officers of The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, were set up to recognise those who have contributed most to raise public awareness of Human Trafficking.

Anya17 is amongst some very stiff competition, which in other Awards ceremonies might not be such good news. Since Anya17 however was written purely to raise awareness of Human Trafficking, this is a win-win situation for the cause, and to have been shortlisted is a great honour.

I can’t thank everyone for this – there are so many people who have worked so hard and for so long to bring Anya17 to life that a list of names (like those of the victims) would be just meaningless. Let me just say then that “you know who you are” and that without even one of your contributions, the project would have been meaningless. Thank you so much.

So, what about the future? It seems we’re off to Romania in 2013 to help raise awareness in a country which is the overwhelmingly recognised ‘starting point’ for the majority of Trafficking victims to the UK. I really hope we can bash some political heads there and make a difference. Germany is also looking promising. We are currently fielding enquiries from the USA and have recently been featured in magazines from such far flung corners of the world as South Korea. Only time will tell.

Adam Gorb and I are much indebted to the brilliant BBC who have not only covered our previous collaborations but have already leant their support to Anya17 at the earliest possible stage. In a clear commitment to raise public awareness of the issues of Human Trafficking, here is the first BBC News Report which was aired just days ago across three BBC southern TV regions.

Special thanks must go to Simon Clemison (pictured) at the BBC, whose dogged determination

and belief in the project resulted not only in the News article already mentioned, but also a second BBC TV report on Trafficking in the South West (to be posted shortly), and an in-depth documentary to be aired next year.

Anya17 Blog

Follow the progress of the extraordinary Anya17 opera as it journeys from libretto to score, through auditions and rehearsals to its premiere by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10/10 in March 2012 and beyond. Read the latest updates from the writers, performers, musicians, NGOs, documentary filmmakers and other volunteers involved in this unique project to raise awareness of sex trafficking to end modern day slavery.